


Barcodes

by TitoLynn



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 11:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2545736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TitoLynn/pseuds/TitoLynn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone has to go get a barcode tattoo on their 18th birthday. It was to help you find your soulmate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Barcodes

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this a while back, like before they moved into the new office.

The first thing Ryan did when he turned 18 was to drive out to the nearest barcode clinic. He couldn’t wait to get there and it took everything in him to not push his gas pedal all the way to the floor of his car.

The barcode clinic is where everyone goes on their 18th birthday to get a barcode tattooed on them. The barcode was generated from the person’s DNA and was supposed to match the tattoo on the person who they were to spend the rest of their life with. Ryan was all about that.

Once Ryan got to the clinic, he practically ran inside. He loved the idea of being able to find the person he would fall madly in love with, and was so thankful for whoever invited the whole barcode idea. He thought about who would have the matching barcode all the time, but he didn’t dare try to imagine what they would look like. He didn’t want to set his expectations to something that might not be met. The only thing he wanted was someone who would love him till the end.

He had put a lot of thought into where he wanted his tattoo. He wanted it in a place where it could be easily seen if needed, but also hidden for when he needed to work. So he had it put it on his left bicep, where it was just covered by the sleeve of his t-shirt.

Ryan walked out of the clinic more excited to meet his soulmate, wherever they may be.

\--//--

Gavin just wanted to sleep all day, it was HIS birthday. He didn’t understand why he had to get up and get a tattoo that he didn’t want. His parents were relentless though. They just kept banging on the door and when he didn’t respond, they came in and started to actually pull him out of bed. If it wasn't a law to get this thing, he probably would have just crawled back to his bed. 

For most of his life, all people could talk about was that stupid barcode tattoo that supposedly matched up with your soulmate's. How it worked and how it made people a lot happier nowadays. They never had to worry about who they would end up with. Never had to experience heartbreak and rejections. 

However, Gavin didn't believe in it. His parents found each other just fine without the barcodes and they are as happy as a couple could ever be. His grandpa says that the pain that you go through to find the right one is what makes you who you are and if you take that experience away; you'll have no idea how to act in tough situations. Gavin felt that he could find his true love on his own, without help from some silly tattoo. 

Still, Gavin was dragged to the clinic, no matter how much he kicked and screamed. 

Once all the procedures were done and it was time to pick where the bloody thing had to go, his parent were back for another disagreement. He had originally chose somewhere on his back so that he would never have to see it, but his parent wouldn't not allow it. After a long and rather loud argument, it was put on his lower front hip so at least his pants would always be over it. 

Gavin walked out of that clinic ready to forget about the whole damn thing. 

\--//--

A lot had happened in Ryan's life since he was 18 and stupid. 

He moved around a bit, finally settling in Austin, Texas to work at Rooster Teeth.   
He loved his job and loved his life there, but there was always that one thing that kept him from being completely happy. 

That stupid barcode on his arm. 

14 years since he had gotten the tattoo and he still hasn't found his match. He was beginning to think it was a lost cause. Maybe the stupid thing was a huge lie. Maybe he didn't even have a soulmate. Maybe his match was dead. 

He was growing restless. He hated sleeping alone, and more importantly, he hated waking up alone.

He had grown use to the guys talking about how they found their matches. He knew all the stories and started getting tired of having to listen to them again and again on the podcasts, and now, the let's plays. He was sick of it and wanted nothing to do with the barcodes anymore. 

That was until they were shooting an episode of AHWU one day. 

Gavin was supposed to be modeling the new AH shirt for t-shirt Tuesday and he had forgotten to wear the shirt. So right before they started filming he changed; right there in front of Ryan. 

"Gavin, please I'm trying to work here. I don't need you stripping around my stuff."

"Aww piss off Rye."

Now Ryan wasn't really trying to look at Gavin with his shirt off, he was just there. That's when he notice it. The top of Gavin's barcode tattoo just peeking out from the waistband of his pants. 

For a split second Ryan thought it looked sort of like his own barcode, but quickly dismissed the idea. It wouldn't be that easy and him completely miss it. Right?

Later when Ryan got home, he couldn't get Gavin's barcode out of his head. Well that, and the fact that he actually really enjoyed watching Gavin take his shirt off. I mean he looked really good with it off, even with all that hair. 

He went to bed thinking about Gavin maybe being the one and how much he actually hoped it was him. He didn't know why he wanted it to be Gavin so much but he also didn't care. At this point, he would admit that he was a bit desperate, and just wanted to be happy. 

He ended up dreaming about Gavin the whole night through. 

"Shit, work is going to be awkward as fuck." He said quietly to himself the next morning. 

\--//--

Gavin walked into work and instantly felt Ryan's eyes on him. Not that he minded the attention, it just seemed a bit weird coming from the man who keeps a cow in a hole in minecraft. He looked over at Ryan and the older man looked away. Gavin decided to just forget and go about his day. 

"Hey! What’s up, X-Ray?"

"Dude it's Joel."

"What's Joel?"

Just then Joel himself walked in, went right up to Ray, kissed him, and dropped a bag in front of him. "Thought you'd like something nice for lunch today."

"Thanks soulmate." Ray smiled and winked as he watched his now boyfriend leave the room. 

So Ray's found his soulmate and it's someone else that works here. Michael's soulmate is Lindsay, Jack's is Caiti, and Geoff's is Griffion. Gavin wasn't sure if Ryan had found his yet, he never talked about it much. However, with his luck, Gavin was probably the only one who hadn't found his. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't a little jealous about not having me his yet. 

He would admit that not too long ago he hated the whole idea of the soulmate tattoos. However, in the last few years he found himself wishing he would find his. Started to fantasized about what his soulmate would look like and how they would act. He began hoping that whoever he was destined to be with, he would get along with. 

Gavin turned away from Ray and put on his headphones and began to work. He didn't want to hear about how happy Ray was. Not that Gavin wasn't happy for him, but he was tired of hearing the same thing from everyone. Sick of hearing how happy they were with they're soulmates. 

Okay so maybe he was really jealous. 

\--//--

"GAVIN! Look out!" Ryan yelled as he killed a creeper that was getting ready to blow. Ryan had given up on winning the let’s play long ago, and after acting like he had completely lost his mind, he decided to help out Gavin. So Ryan had been following him around for a while to keep everyone and everything off his back. 

Ryan had actually been helping Gavin out a lot in let’s plays, and others had began to notice. Granted, he may have also been slightly flirting with the younger man quite a bit. Ever since there became a slight chance that Gavin could be his soulmate, he hasn’t been able to get it out of his head. He had become a bit infatuated with the brit. 

Once the game had ended with Achievement City winning the Tower of Pimps and everyone stopped their recordings, Geoff pulled Ryan aside. “Okay so what’s up with you being all creepy and kind of stalkerish with Gavin lately?” Geoff asked in a hushed tone.

“I’m not doing either of those things. I was just trying to help him win.” Ryan argued, a little taken aback with Geoff’s assumption.

“You totally are, dude. I mean I wouldn’t say anything if you weren’t super obvious with it.” 

Ryan looked down and scratched the back of his head. He hadn’t meant for it to get like that; he was just playing around with the whole idea. Now Gavin probably thought he was the creepiest person ever, even more so than he did before. 

Ryan looked back at Geoff and sighed. “I’ll leave him alone, I really didn’t realize I was being creepy.”

Geoff just slightly raised his coffee mug and walked away. Ryan stood there for a while, feeling like a complete idiot. 

\--//--

Gavin walked into the office the next morning in his normally good mood. "Good morning everyone!" He said brightly. Everyone responded with either a groggy "morning" or a grown. Well, everyone but Ryan, who didn't even acknowledge that Gavin was there. He thought that it was a bit odd seeing as Ryan had been pretty much connected to him the lately, but he just shrugged it off. Maybe Ryan was just having a bad morning.

Through out the day Gavin did little things to brighten up Ryan's day. He would bring Ryan a red bull whenever he would get himself one but Ryan wouldn't accept it. He would try to joke around with Ryan everytime they recorded but Ryan acted as if he didn't hear the him. No matter what Gavin tried, Ryan just straight up ignored him. It was beginning to get on Gavin's last nerve. 

By the time they had finished the last recording of the day, Gavin had become fed up with Ryan acting like he didn’t exist. So when Ryan got up to stretch, Gavin got up and grabbed Ryan’s arm in one surprisingly smooth motion. Before Ryan could protest, let alone react at all, Gavin was dragging him out the door and to the parking lot.

“Gavin! What the fuck?” Ryan yelled as he tried to pry Gavin’s death grip off his wrist.

Gavin finally let go once he was sure he far enough away from anybody hearing them. “What the bloody hell is your problem with me?”

Ryan tried to look more confused than guilty. “I don’t-”

“You know full well what I’m talking about. Don’t give me that bullshit.” Gavin noticed that Ryan was looking everywhere but at him. 

“I...I mean..I just.” Ryan stammered.

“You start treating me like I’m a fucking king and doing this and that for me and then you start acting like I’m the worse person to ever exist.” Gavin began to get angrier and his voice getting louder as he continued. “I don’t even know what I did to you for you to fucking give me the silent treatment like a bloody 6 year old.”

“No, Gavin, that’s not what I meant to do! Just let me explain all this.” Ryan pleaded.

Gavin crossed his arms and looks him dead in the eye. “Aright, go on then. Explain.”

\--//--

Aww shit shit shit shit, Ryan thought as he tried to think of a way to go about this. He didn’t honestly expect Gavin to let him explain. He was hoping for Gavin to walk off pissed so he could figure out a way to tell Gavin without sounding like a total creep. Now he has no idea what to say. 

How do you explain that you saw a glimpse of someone’s barcode and you thought it kind of looked like yours? So now all you can do is think about this stupid brit and hoping that his barcode is the same as yours. How do you explain that you now want to give the world to this idiot because you have an embarrassing crush on him. All because there might be a slight possibility that he’s your soulmate.

“I’m waiting Ryan.” Gavin said, breaking Ryan’s thoughts.

“Well, I thought I saw..” Ryan started. “Not that I was really looking, I just happen to see it, and I thought that maybe it was the same.” Ryan began to ramble “So I couldn’t get it out of my head, and then geoff said I was being creepy and so I stopped. You got pissed and I didn’t mean to do that. I’m so sorry.” 

“Ryan! None of that makes sense!” Gavin yelled.

“So maybe I can’t explain it. I’m sorry.” Ryan started to walk back to the office. 

Gavin grabbed Ryan’s arm and tried to pull him back. “Ryan no, I want to know what this is all about.”

Ryan looked at Gavin, studying his face. Gavin was concerned, he was actually worried that he had pissed Ryan off to the point of not wanting to be around him. That’s when Ryan made a rash decision to actually find out what he has been wondering this whole time. 

Ryan took a hold of Gavin’s shirt with one hand and pulled it up a little, while he pulled Gavin’s pants down just enough to see what he was looking for. 

“RYAN! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING?” Gavin was trying to get out of Ryan’s grip. “Ryan! Let go!” Gavin finally managed to get Ryan’s hands off his clothes, but not before Ryan got a good look at his tattoo. “Have you gone mental?”

“It’s...it is the same” Ryan stood in shock. That wasn’t actually what he expected. 

Gavin was just looking at Ryan. “What’s..what’s the same?”

Ryan just lifted up his left shirt sleeve.

“You mean..we’re soulmates?” Gavin all but whispered.

“Yeah, looks like it.” Ryan laughed awkwardly “So yeah sorry about being all weird. I was just confused.”

“It’s alright I guess.” Gavin didn’t really know what to say now. “Um we should probably get back to the office before the guys come looking for us.” 

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Ryan and Gavin started back to the office.

\--//--

Gavin couldn’t focus on editing after what happened. Ryan was his soulmate. He had totally missed it because he didn’t believe in the whole thing. Of all the people it could have been, it was Ryan. 

 

Not that Ryan was terrible looking, he was actually a very cute. He was also really sweet and kind when he wanted to be. However, he was Ryan. The mad king, the creepy guy. Even if that worked for him and made him even hotter.

Wait, did Gavin actually like Ryan? To be truthful, he hadn’t really ever thought about it till now. It didn’t actually sound so bad to maybe spend the rest of his life with Ryan. 

Just as Gavin was thinking what it would be like to be in love with Ryan, something hit him in the back of the head. “Ow, what was that for?” He turned to find a crumpled up post it note on the floor. He picked it up and smoothed it out to read it what it said, 

So I know it was awkward earlier, and I’m sorry about that. I’m also really sorry for all the creepy stuff and pissing you off. So how about we forget it happened and you go to dinner with me tonight? ~Ryan

Gavin felt his face start to heat up, so he put his on his face to hide his blushing. Ryan was asking him out on a date. By post it note. How cliche could he be?

So Gavin wrote out his response. 

That sounds lovely. I expect flowers. ;) ~Gavin

Gavin crumpled it up again and threw it back at Ryan. He watched Ryan open it and smile. Gavin couldn't help but smile as well.

Yeah, Gavin could definitely fall for Ryan.


End file.
